~ The Birth and Death of the Second America

ANC politicizes Canadian Fire

It used to be that one helped one’s fellow-man if his house was on fire. Perhaps I just misunderstood that point somewhere back there. Now it seems to work differently. Then again, let me not confuse the gushing Canadians; after all, they are so very nice. But they really can do with some education in the matter of the rest of the planet. They also need some training in when they are being used. Then again, I guess for liberal people a bleeding heart is a joy forever.

As a man born in South Africa with a great a consuming love of that country and continent, I felt quite charmed when I heard over the last few days that South African firemen were coming over to Canada to help with the Fort MacMurray fire. Don’t tell anyone, but I actually felt proud.

And then the arch liberal Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (The Liberal Party Tribute Channel here in Canada) ran a video this morning of dancing Zulu firefighters arriving at Edmonton on the way to Fort MacMurray. The Business News Network has also run an article.

And then the CBC commentator added with an “aw-schucks” attitude that this was being done to thank Canada for its “help in removing apartheid”. (Indeed, at a farewell ceremony in Johannesburg, Barbara Thomson, the South African deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs, had recalled Canada’s help for the fight against apartheid. “As South Africans, we feel indebted to the Canadian people,” she had told the ceremony).

It was THEN—and only then—that I noticed the firefighters were all black. (Thinks: And there I thought the ANC insisted that all should be done by racial quota reflecting the national population split. So some 12% of them should have been white and a few Coloured and Indian).

And then the entirely innocent firefighters did their “dance & song routine”. An earlier CBC video is HERE [click]. And I read the faces of the people watching in this morning’s video: “Mommy, Mommy! Aw, ain’t that nice. Lookee there Mommy, black man do Jim Crow! Can we take him home with us, pleeeeeeeease mommy!”

For those not familiar with the term, I quote the “illustrious” Wikipedia, because that is likely the only homework Canadians will do:

The origin of the phrase “Jim Crow” has often been attributed to “Jump Jim Crow”, a song-and-dance caricature of blacks performed by white actor Thomas D. Rice in blackface, which first surfaced in 1832 and was used to satirize Andrew Jackson’s populist policies. As a result of Rice’s fame, “Jim Crow” by 1838 had become a pejorative expression meaning “Negro”. When southern legislatures passed laws of racial segregation directed against blacks at the end of the 19th century, these became known as Jim Crow laws.

Americans consider apartheid as being Jim Crow laws.

And this took me back to a visit I had to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe around 1996. At the hotel that night an event was run which contained some dancing by a collection of young Matabele/Ama’Ndebele men, descendents of the men who fought with Mzilikatze. As an Afrikaner, I had some understanding of the history and the pride. Furthermore, after Mzilikatze’s defeat by the Afrikaners, he moved his people north into what is now southwestern Zimbabwe, where they remained and kept good relations with the Afrikaners of the Transvaal Republic. King Lobengula was a friend to the supposedly hated Afrikaners. More can be read about that in the book AmaBhulu (Click here).

After the event, when everyone went back to their “cabanas”, the Zulu dance troop (The ama’Ndebele are strongly Zulu-derived and speak a form of Zulu) came walking by toward their quarters. A stupid British tourist thought it fit to do a little jig in front of the one Ndebele man, who promptly told him dismissively,

“You go jump for yourself”.

I thought that was just a perfect response and gave the Ndebele man a quiet thumbs-up and a wry smile, and he nodded his head to me in acknowledgement. Not a word was spoken, but we understood each other.

Nevertheless, the issue here is that the ANC government, instead of sending firemen to help the sorely tried Canadians at Fort MacMurray, is actually promoting the ANC and keeping the word “apartheid” alive to its own political benefit by expediently abusing the misery of the good folks of Fort Mac. But Canadians are way too nice to say “no thanks” to black people. That would be Politically Incorrect.

Meanwhile the innocent Zulu contingent is being given a crash course in how to be firefighters. I wonder how many real firefighters are drawn away from doing the actual firefighting in order to do this training. I trust the medical backup is ready, because these innocent people are fire beaters in South Africa, not what a Canadian understands by the term “firefighter”.

And the Canadians? They’re going “how cute!” and “How nice!“. They are much taken with the dancing and how “these people inspire one another through dancing and singing!”

Yeah, right! Wait till they see people, much like these, toyi-toyi with machetes in their hands, and then we’ll talk again.

I repeat, the actual group of 300 is entirely innocent. The ANC is not.

Consider this an open letter to Ms Thomson:

Next time a Canadian asks you why these young people came to help, you say,”Because the good people of Fort MacMurray are human beings, they are in trouble, and as fellow human beings we are morally obliged to help as best we can.” Then, for good measure, you can add “As for myself, I will now shut up and actually do the job I’m supposed to do.”